It’s that time of the year again when working mums everywhere are begging, borrowing and stealing to try and get childcare sorted for the summer holidays! The summer holidays certainly aren’t all fun when you have to work.
We’re in our second year of school holidays now and it’s certainly hard to manage it all. I could do with my own PA to schedule everything.
If you still have days to try and fill, here’s how we manage to sort childcare in the summer holidays…
Annual Leave
If you work then, like most parents, you’ll probably use up most of your holiday allowance for the school holidays. Even though it’s so much more expensive, we go on our family holiday in the summer holidays as it’s 2 weeks childcare out of the 6 sorted! After that, the husband and I take one day a week off each and use up most of our annual leave.
Family
We’re very lucky that we have wonderful parents who help out every week with Little H in the holidays and have done since she was a baby. This sorts 2-3 days childcare every week in the summer. My lovely nan will also do a half day if we’re stuck which is great in an emergency. If your parents can’t help, try asking siblings, aunts, uncles – any relative who might like to see your kids for the day!
Friends
Now that Little H is older (6) it’s easier to leave her with her friends for the day and not worry too much about leaving her. I’ve got a good arrangement with one of her friend’s mums who also works. She’ll have Little H round her house on a few of her days off, and I’ll do the same with her daughter on some of my days off. It’s a win-win – the girls love seeing each other, it keeps them occupied, and there are no childcare costs. Definitely worth thinking about if there’s another mum you trust to look after your child. Maybe you can arrange some playdates with another school mum.
Holiday clubs
If you’ve exhausted all the free options then, unfortunately, you’ll have to end up paying a fortune for childcare. Last year we sent Little H to her old nursery – I don’t like leaving her with people we don’t know so this was a good option as she’s known the staff for a couple of years. It’s so expensive though and this year the cost went up to £31 per day! We decided against it and have booked Little H into a couple of gymnastics days at her club which are much cheaper. If you’re looking for holiday clubs then some good options are the various sports clubs run by local sports centres.
How do you deal with the school holidays if you work?
I’m very lucky in that I work from home so can pick and choose my hours and work with the kids here.
But when needed I share childcare with friends where we help each other out
Summer holidays can be tricky and it is hard work juggling work and childcare. Unfortunately we live away from family so it is even trickier as they are too far away to help and when we get to see them it is as a family for a family day out to visit them. Great tip about playdates and having an arrangement with a fellow parent in the same boat, will have to work on that one for us.
Luckily we are off at the same time as little man, otherwise it would be so hard to find childcare!
This isn’t something I had even thought about!! My oldest is only 18months at the moment so we’ve got a while but think it will be tricky when it does come round.
N’s also gone to holiday clubs at his old nursery (both of them do them – 1 he didn’t like the 1 time he went as it wasn’t really what it was sold as, and the other one) he’s often either the only 1 there, or with preschoolers which isn’t great. The activity/sports camps don’t usually cover working hours (usually 9.30-3 and that’s the early drop off), so I had found a holiday camp which looked great. He was happy to try it because there was swimming every day, but the OH vetoed it and said N could go on the farm with him. But I hate that – fine for a week, but it’ll be harvest and N will get bored on a tractor all day. So he’ll end up being dumped on the in laws or his uncle/aunt which isn’t fair on them. My OH won’t take him places either – so although a friend has offered to have him for playdates a couple of day, the OH won’t take him, and I don’t want to dump N on her for all my working hours.
The rest of the holidays I’m covering. I have 2 weeks off, plus the inset days, then this year have taken an extra week through the unpaid parental leave allowance. Hopefully I’ll also be able to build up a day or 2 of flexi leave.
It’s certainly hard, although I have built up unused childcare vouchers which I’d planned to use over the summer but now won’t because the OH doesn’t see the value and what N will get from going to a proper activity holiday camp. #sharingthebloglove
Thankfully I am a SAHM, which means I haven’t had to worry about this. I know my SIL works with her friend to share the child care of their daughters and it seems to work well. The 6 weeks are always the hardest to cover. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
I’m a stay at home Mum so I don’t have this issue but I do have a blog that I work on when the children are in school so it’s going to be difficult to juggle that over the holidays! It’s a real problem for those who work! Thank you for joining us at #sharingthebloglove
It is such a juggle. Like you we use a mixture of annual leave and grandparents to cover the holidays. The kids love it as the variety is fab, for us parents though it is hard work! Have a good summer. #sharingthebloglove
Living in France I have benefited from their amazing system of childcare. They have state funded centres, Centre de Loisirs, they are both after school clubs and holiday clubs. They are affordable, lots in each area, highly qualified staff, they run from 8.20 – 5.30 and provide lunch. It’s been brilliant because I have no backup! Back to London soon and it’s going to be the holiday juggle! #sharingthebloglove
That sounds great, shame the UK can’t do the same kind of thing!
Toby only starts school in September so we haven’t had to deal with this yet, and at the moment I’m not working anyway. Even if I do go back to work I’m a teacher so holiday childcare isn’t an issue – one of the perks of being a teacher! I really don’t know how other working families do it, it must be so hard. #SharingTheBlogLove